WATER QUALITY

WE BELIEVE IN COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY.

Maine Premium Grade

Summit Spring Water is one of a select few to carry the State of Maine’s “Premium Grade” designation (License #452). The State of Maine awards this designation to only the highest-quality natural spring water that meets the most stringent quality and testing guidelines developed by the Maine Department of Health + Human Services. This designation has been allowed only twice in the 30 year history of the rule.

Our water is so naturally pure, it exceeds every Federal and State guidelines for drinking water straight from the ground, and requires no treatment or filtration whatsoever.

Summit Spring Water quality assurance worker
Summit Spring Water quality bottler
Summit Spring Water Qaulity assurance team

We’ve posted the complete text of our annual detailed water analysis, to provide full disclosure of the quality of Summit Spring Water. Even when rogue contaminants like pharmaceuticals don’t find their way into municipal water, a host of toxic chemicals like chlorine, chloramine, fluoride, and lye, to name only a few, are commonly and deliberately added to public drinking water supplies by law, as they are required to maintain chemical residuals that continue to disinfect the water while it sits in ancient pipes. Detergents, phosphates, and fertilizers from surface runoff are also not completely removed in the water-treatment processes.

See the full report.

Interpreting Water-Quality Analysis Reports

Our motto is “You Should Know Where Your Water Comes From,” and in that spirit, we’re laying our cards on the table; because frankly, the closer you look at Summit Spring Water, the better we look. These reports are results from seven independent labs that collectively test for nearly 200 substances—more than twice the number required to be tested for by either the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Summit Spring Water spends nearly $10,000 each year to maintain this level of water-quality testing, far exceeding the EPA’s standards for public drinking water and the FDA’s standards for bottled water. These reports are very detailed and can seem a little cryptic if you’re unaccustomed to interpreting them, so here are a few tips about what to look for and how to interpret the information:

Testing tubes for Summit Spring Water quality

MCL is the level that the FDA deems acceptable. Substances that show no MCL value (represented by “- – -“) are considered harmless; therefore, no safety levels are established and enforced. MCL values marked with two asterisks (**) are considered secondary, and testing for them is not required but recommended. These substances are not considered to affect health; testing for them is recommended only to provide clues to the source of any cloudiness or odor that may be present. You’ll see that our results for these substances fall far below the MCL, and Summit Spring Water has no cloudiness or odor of any kind.

Summit Spring Water quality testing for pharmaceuticals

We test for pharmaceuticals and continue to find no evidence of them whatsoever.
Not surprising, since the spring’s source is in a pristine Maine forest, on the highest ground in the county, far removed from man’s contaminants.Most municipal water comes from surface water supplies like lakes, rivers and streams, which are easily contaminated by human activity. The source of contaminants like pharmaceuticals in municipal water is in part from human waste that is processed through sewage treatment plants and directly or indirectly reintroduced into public drinking water supplies—what some call a “toilet-to-tap” process.

Summit Spring Water quality level detection

Level Detected is the amount of a given substance detected in Summit Spring Water.
You’ll see that very little of any substance…other than water…is found in Summit Spring Water. Most substances tested for have a value of “ND” (None Detected). For some substances, the result under “Level Detected” may be “NA.” This means the contaminant was not analyzed by that particular testing lab. Not every contaminant is tested for by every lab, but each contaminant is tested for by at least one of the labs.

An asterisk (*) next to a result in the Level Detected column indicates a result that falls outside of the recommended range (either higher or lower) for that item. The only item on our report that falls outside of the recommended range is pH. Because Summit Spring Water has such a low mineral content, and minerals raise pH, our pH tends to be on the low side (5.8 on this report) for natural spring water. For comparison’s sake, the recommended range for treated bottled water is between 5 and 7, the human stomach is between 1 and 3, and apple juice is between 2.9 and 3.3.